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  • The Freehold Secondary Mystery

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

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 #1483951  by rr503
 
Do any of these facilities use their rail spurs, though? I can't imagine that CSX in Hillsborough, for example, is easy to deal with when talking about short haul traffic...
 #1560145  by CR7876
 
Old thread bump.

Does anyone know what they are building on the Southeast Quadrant at Okerson Rd on the OOS portion of the railroad?
 #1560146  by Bracdude181
 
@CR7876 Hold on, Construction on the ROW?

I had been hearing that they might begin working on reopening Farmingdale to Freehold in early 2021 but I never got confirmation.

If there’s actually a crew working on the ROW It probably means one of three things.

1. Conrail is preparing to re open the line.

2. The tracks are being removed all together.

3 JCP&L is working on the adjacent power poles.

I’m hoping for Option 1!
 #1560148  by CR7876
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:23 pm @CR7876 Hold on, Construction on the ROW?

I had been hearing that they might begin working on reopening Farmingdale to Freehold in early 2021 but I never got confirmation.

If there’s actually a crew working on the ROW It probably means one of three things.

1. Conrail is preparing to re open the line.

2. The tracks are being removed all together.

3 JCP&L is working on the adjacent power poles.

I’m hoping for Option 1!
Its not on the ROW, its a building of some sort, NEXT to the RoW. Don't overthink this, It's not time yet.
 #1560163  by CharlieL
 
When they first started it I was hoping for a siding for these two buildings but no such luck. There are survey stakes along Okerson for maybe about 50 ft and along the secondary going east for another 50 feet. The building has a future home of sign but I can't remember the name - -
Maybe railroad related but probably not.
 #1560210  by CharlieL
 
Just a couple of small commercial buildings, one office space, one small warehouse space (for rent this coming summer). Power was done a couple of weeks ago, they may be getting gas from the looks of it. No discernable railroad related activity.
 #1560327  by Bracdude181
 
@CharlieL Any yellow construction markings nearby? They mark the location of underground gas pipes.

Speaking of construction, wasn’t the Freehold Industrial supposed to get a new customer last year? I heard a new siding was gonna be built very close to Prestone and it was gonna be used to load up cars with contaminates removed from dirty topsoil. Conrail apparently brought supplies to build the spur nearby and left them on the ground somewhere.

Anyone know what that was about?
 #1560362  by CharlieL
 
Across the track from Prestone is a Monmouth County site which has a large amount of material (cut up trees, dirt, stone, etc). It's between the track and Willowbrook Rd. I do not know if any of it is contaminated, suspect not. It extends from Halls Mill to Okerson rd.
 #1560393  by Bracdude181
 
@CharlieL Thank you, I am also unaware of the sites cleanliness.

Supposedly the “contaminates” are from mulch that Monmouth County cleans and sells to its residents. Kind of like how they used to load Oceangro Fertilizer into hopper cars in Lakehurst on the Southern Secondary. The contaminated materials were supposed to be loaded into cars to be shipped out by rail. Not sure why this hasn’t happened yet...
 #1561138  by Bracdude181
 
Checked out the Freehold Industrial Track yesterday and found that the OOS section east of Okerson Rd now has construction markings at all nearly all of the former grade crossings. Mainly for the location of AT&T wire, but pink markings (which means a survey has taken place) can also be found...

There’s also a new customer on the Freehold Industrial. I believe they are a plastics company. Conrail will deliver hoppers full of plastic pellets once service starts if it hasn’t already.
 #1561559  by GSC
 
A new customer? Where is it located?

I have an old map given to me by a longtime Freehold resident. It shows so many sidings in and around Freehold, looks almost like an N-scale club layout.

I came across information I'll have to find again concerning the offering sales of stock to charter a (stillborn) possibly narrow gauge rail line from Freehold south to Allentown. The plan was to haul farm products to the CNJ and PRR lines in Freehold. It obviously never happened, but such was the case during railroad fever days.
 #1561590  by CharlieL
 
The fire insurance maps (Sanborn?) that Princeton University hosts online even show a turntable in Freehold somewhere around the turn of the last century.
 #1561623  by GSC
 
I just rescued myself from the depths of the Sanborn map collection. The 1909 map of Freehold shows a turntable in the area of the south side of the F&JA railroad, by Throckmorton St. and Monmouth Ave. A two track enginehouse right next to the J H Bawden Iron Foundry. It appears the turntable was roughly where the caboose sits now. With all the sidings in town, it looks like the PRR had reason to keep an engine or two close by.

The 1916 map of the same location shows the turntable and engine house no longer there.

These maps are fascinating.
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